IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/bstrat/v19y2010i4p230-244.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

A sensemaking approach to trade‐offs and synergies between human and ecological elements of corporate sustainability

Author

Listed:
  • Tamsin Angus‐Leppan
  • Suzanne Benn
  • Louise Young

Abstract

This paper considers the complex relationships between the human and ecological elements of sustainability that exist in the minds of stakeholders and argues that a sensemaking approach allows these to be better understood and compared. This is supported by the results of a study, set in a financial institution, exploring the relationships between these non‐financial elements of corporate sustainability. The viewpoints of middle management, branch and contact centre employees, executives, a community consultative council, suppliers and a community partner of a large Australian bank obtained in in‐depth interviews are analysed and compared utilizing an innovative methodology of semantic analysis. We find that these stakeholders' perceptions of the human–ecological relationship differ by group, containing different mixes of trade‐offs and synergies between the non‐financial elements of corporate sustainability. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.

Suggested Citation

  • Tamsin Angus‐Leppan & Suzanne Benn & Louise Young, 2010. "A sensemaking approach to trade‐offs and synergies between human and ecological elements of corporate sustainability," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 19(4), pages 230-244, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:bstrat:v:19:y:2010:i:4:p:230-244
    DOI: 10.1002/bse.675
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1002/bse.675
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1002/bse.675?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Paul Lanoie, 2008. "When And Why Does It Pay To Be Green?," CIRANO Papers 2008n-02a, CIRANO.
    2. Figge, Frank & Hahn, Tobias, 2004. "Sustainable Value Added--measuring corporate contributions to sustainability beyond eco-efficiency," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 48(2), pages 173-187, February.
    3. Thomas Dyllick & Kai Hockerts, 2002. "Beyond the business case for corporate sustainability," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 11(2), pages 130-141, March.
    4. Karl E. Weick & Kathleen M. Sutcliffe & David Obstfeld, 2005. "Organizing and the Process of Sensemaking," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 16(4), pages 409-421, August.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Volker Lingnau & Florian Fuchs & Florian Beham, 2022. "The link between corporate sustainability and willingness to invest: new evidence from the field of ethical investments," Journal of Management Control: Zeitschrift für Planung und Unternehmenssteuerung, Springer, vol. 33(3), pages 335-369, September.
    2. Rosa Maria Dangelico & Pierpaolo Pontrandolfo, 2015. "Being ‘Green and Competitive’: The Impact of Environmental Actions and Collaborations on Firm Performance," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 24(6), pages 413-430, September.
    3. Christian Garmann Johnsen, 2021. "Sustainability Beyond Instrumentality: Towards an Immanent Ethics of Organizational Environmentalism," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 172(1), pages 1-14, August.
    4. Figge, Frank & Hahn, Tobias, 2012. "Is green and profitable sustainable? Assessing the trade-off between economic and environmental aspects," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 140(1), pages 92-102.
    5. Björn Mestdagh & Luc Van Liedekerke & Olivier Sempiga, 2024. "A Drivers Framework of Organizational SDG Engagement," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(1), pages 1-20, January.
    6. Giacomo Fabietti & Francesca Trovarelli, 2016. "The role of Eco-control in the implementation of Sustainable Business Models," MANAGEMENT CONTROL, FrancoAngeli Editore, vol. 2016(3), pages 141-172.
    7. Lueg, Rainer & Radlach, Ronny, 2016. "Managing sustainable development with management control systems: A literature review," European Management Journal, Elsevier, vol. 34(2), pages 158-171.
    8. Kate Kearins & Eva Collins, 2012. "Making Sense of Ecopreneurs' Decisions to Sell Up," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 21(2), pages 71-85, February.
    9. Engelseth, Per & Sandvik, Marius, 2017. "On Complexity, Ecosystems, and Sustainability in Local Food Supply: A Case Study on Fresh Seafood Supply," International Journal on Food System Dynamics, International Center for Management, Communication, and Research, vol. 8(3), August.
    10. Love Westin & Jacob Hallencreutz & Johan Parmler, 2022. "Sustainable Development as a Driver for Customer Experience," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(6), pages 1-18, March.
    11. Lorenzo Ardito & Rosa Maria Dangelico & Antonio Messeni Petruzzelli, 2021. "The link between female representation in the boards of directors and corporate social responsibility: Evidence from B corps," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 28(2), pages 704-720, March.
    12. Sungchul Choi & Alex Ng, 2011. "Environmental and Economic Dimensions of Sustainability and Price Effects on Consumer Responses," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 104(2), pages 269-282, December.
    13. Max M. Weber, 2023. "The Relationship between Resilience and Sustainability in the Organizational Context—A Systematic Review," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(22), pages 1-26, November.
    14. Ana Rodríguez-Olalla & Carmen Avilés-Palacios, 2017. "Integrating Sustainability in Organisations: An Activity-Based Sustainability Model," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(6), pages 1-17, June.
    15. Per Engelseth & Richard Glavee-Geo & Artur Janusz & Enoch Niboi, 2020. "The Emergent Nature of Networked Sustainable Procurement," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(1), pages 1-18, December.
    16. Silvia Ranfagni & Wilson Ozuem, 2022. "Luxury and Sustainability: Technological Pathways and Potential Opportunities," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(9), pages 1-12, April.
    17. Nadine Székely & Jan vom Brocke, 2017. "What can we learn from corporate sustainability reporting? Deriving propositions for research and practice from over 9,500 corporate sustainability reports published between 1999 and 2015 using topic ," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 12(4), pages 1-27, April.
    18. Massimiliano Borrello & Stefano Pascucci & Luigi Cembalo, 2020. "Three Propositions to Unify Circular Economy Research: A Review," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(10), pages 1-22, May.
    19. Mehrnaz Ashrafi & Gregory M. Magnan & Michelle Adams & Tony R. Walker, 2020. "Understanding the Conceptual Evolutionary Path and Theoretical Underpinnings of Corporate Social Responsibility and Corporate Sustainability," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(3), pages 1-17, January.
    20. Giovanni Mattia & Alessio Di Leo & Carlo Alberto Pratesi, 2021. "Recognizing the Key Drivers and Industry Implications of Sustainable Packaging Design: A Mixed-Method Approach," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(9), pages 1-18, May.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:bstrat:v:19:y:2010:i:4:p:230-244. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1002/(ISSN)1099-0836 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.